Welcome to Return To The Garden. I created this site back in 2007 as a place to organize recipes [mine and otherwise] and store other fun health-based nuggets of wisdom I was picking up from time to time.
However, since that time Return To The Garden has morphed into more than something simply for me. Shortly after this blog came to be, I was diagnosed with multiple food allergies and sensitivities - the most serious being gluten. I realized there wasn't a reliable outlet to find information for my new found health dilema, like what in the world is gluten and where do I start?! And so, I began to collect, write, and create recipes in hopes you don't have to face this unknown the way I did.
In 2013 I created Return to the Garden, LLC and began working with clients as they navigated personal health struggles, educating and providing guidance as needed.
My personal health journey led me to yoga and meditation and eventually to becoming a registered yoga teacher. Yoga and meditation have been the most important, transforming practices I've embraced and has really become the focus in the work I do.
Currently, Return To The Garden has grown into more than recipes for the gluten-free minded [forced?] person. Here you will find information on healthy pregnancy, growing healthy children, using herbs, brief meditations, a bit of nutrition-based information, as well as a plethora of recipes to cover a variety of allergies, sensitivities, and preferences. You'll also come across ways I've been inspired in an "everything is spiritual" sense as well as current classes and events and scheduling a yoga or meditation session with me.
My hope is, when you leave this site or finish a class, you feel like you have found a sister in wellness, carry with you a bit of new knowledge as well as inspiration to try new things, and of course, the desire to come back for more!
My goal is to instill a realization that life is more than simply waking up, traversing the trials of the day, and hitting the pillow with a sigh at night. Deep within each of us there is the sense we were created for more than this - you were created for more than this. I want you to believe it, embrace it.
So friend, may you find the beauty in each day and come along with me as we return to the garden and unearth the light that resides within us all.
Namaste, friends.
Ria has a Master's in Holistic Nutrition and is a Certified and Registered Yoga Teacher [through Prairie Yoga and Yoga Alliance] living in West Michigan. She is a wife, mother to two children, painter, writer, and loves all things to do with water.
She realized a love for the garden as a little girl and remembers working with her mother at the Farmer's Market where she became entranced by the variety of foods [and people] found there.
After pursuing a career in interior design, Ria was diagnosed with a gluten allergy followed by a dairy and soy allergy a few months later. Since that time, she has left the world of design and set out on a journey to discover what it means to be fully WHOLE. This has lead her into the powerful healing hands of yoga and meditation.
Ria is inspired by the ability yoga has to create a safe space for individual experience, community, and growth alongside its gentle insistence that through tending to practice, in whatever form it takes, the path reveals itself moment by moment.
Ria has been formally practicing yoga for over a decade, graduating from Prairie Yoga Institute in both 2015 (200-hour training) and 2019 (500-hour training). She teaches a variety of somatic and classical yoga movement.
Guided by the experience that each of us has the innate ability to restore, explore, and transform, Ria intentionally and creatively challenges the mind and body to reveal perceived boundaries and draw forth a response of courage, compassion, and "a ha!" moments. Through precision and alignment intermingled with breath, mantra, metaphor, and imagery, she seeks to improve her students' skill and encourage curiosity. Her goal is that time spent on the mat will manifest in a deep and lasting experience of interconnection that leads to inspired action, lasting transformation, and peace.
To deepen her own understanding and practice of yoga and continue her growth as a teacher, Ria is studying with Tias Little and is currently completing SATYA Training through Prajna Yoga.
1 comment:
I love that I stumbled upon your page. Beautiful photos, recipes + mission. Much love to you and your work.
Stay well,
Sherrie
withfoodandlove.com
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